The University of Minnesota Extension Master Gardener Program in Hennepin County is looking for a few good gardeners!  They are looking for Hennepin County residents with a variety of gardening experiences; previous volunteer experience; good communication skills, including public speaking and leadership skills.  More information can be found on their website — www.hcmg.umn.edu.  

Terry Straub
Program Coordinator
University of Minnesota Extension
Hennepin County Master Gardener Program
479 Prairie Center Drive
Eden Prairie, MN   55344-5378
P:  612.596.2130
F:  952.828.7280
Preferred E-mail at:  strau097@umn.edu
Hennepin County Master Gardener Hotline:  612.596.2118

Become a Master Gardener!  Applications are now on-line at www.hcmg.umn.edu.

“If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.”  Marcus Tullius Cicero

From our friends at Gardening Matters comes this announcement:

The Minneapolis Parade of Community Gardens is August 22nd.   It will be a wonderful kick off to National Community Gardening Week that was declared by the US Department of Agriculture.   Minneapolis & St Paul City Councils will be passing resolutions proclaiming August 22nd as  “Community Garden Day”, honoring each and every community garden and the hard work that everyone contributes to making these green spaces community assets.

It is important to show support for these resolutions being put forth by the cities so if you have an opportunity to stop by the City Council meetings this week please do so.

The entire process takes only 15-30minutes.  Quick and Easy. Let the city council know just how important these green spaces are to our neighborhoods.  You won’t need to say anything — your presence will say it all.

Minneapolis City Council Meeting
Friday, August 14, 2009
9:30 a.m.
300 5th St
Council Chambers, Room 317 City Hall, Minneapolis

St Paul City Council Meeting
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
3:30 p.m.
15 Kellogg W Blvd
Council Chambers, Third Floor City Hall, Saint Paul

The International Outreach Church Community Garden in Burnsville is working on a City of Burnsville Resolution also! Right on!! Date of Resolution TBA.

Parade of Community Garden brochures can be found at www.gardeningmatters.org or call 612-492-8964!

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I have had the joy of growing up next door to the Dowling Community Garden all my life, and while my own backyard is large enough that I do not need the space of a community garden, I enjoy walking by every day and watching the crops and flowers grow, and my neighbors tending to their plots.  I speak with many of them at Mother Earth Gardens each spring about what they are going to plant and during the summer we commiserate about the lack of rain.  Community Gardens are a most wonderous thing and there are not nearly enough of them in the Twin Cities, though we are fortunate that there are far more here than other cities,  as the Parade will attest.   Each year it is such a thrill to see how many more have been added to the Parade.

Community Gardens are not just enjoyable for me, there is research that more and more people are enjoying them. The makers of Scotts Miracle Gro (they do make an organic product now at least, and their research was insightful), sponsored a comprehensive white paper on gardening in America.   In it they state  “Among households that don’t currently participate in food gardening, 3 percent would be extremely interested and 4 percent would be very interested in having a plot in a community garden located near their home. That translates to an estimated 5 million households that would like to garden in a community garden in the future, compared to the 1 million households that are current community gardeners.”

Five million additional people could be joining the community gardening movement if we could only find safe and clean spaces for them.  And not only could this be helpful in creating a further sense of community, providing safe, healthy produce, and an enjoyable activity for the family, but according to a 2006 study by the Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy at New York University & the New York School of Law:  “The opening of a community garden has a statistically significant positive impact on residential properties within 1000 feet of the garden, and that the impact increases over time.  We also find that higher quality gardens have the greatest positive impact.  Finally, we find that gardens have the greatest impact in the most disadvantaged neighborhoods.”

Community Gardens can increase your property value,  more and more people want to participate, they provide an economical source of fresh produce that is good for the environment and on top of all that, gardening is good exercise and is one of the most enjoyable activities imaginable.  So if you can, please go to your City Council meeting, or send your regards to your representative in support of National Community Gardening Week and Community Gardening Day. Because with more support from our government, perhaps more of those 5 million people nationwide can have that chance to participate in this great activity known as Community Gardening.  Maybe one of them is you!

For more information on how to start a Community Garden, the American Community Gardening Association is a wonderful resource as is of course, Gardening Matters mentioned above.  The City of Minneapolis also has the specific details on rules for starting a Community Garden on their website.

People have been singing to their plants for years. And there have even been scientific studies on the effects of music on plant growth.   Now there is a traveling Opera being performed in local Community Gardens in the Twin Cities. Mixed Precipitation is presenting  Orpheus and Eurydice: a picnic operetta,  “a celebration of the sustainable foods system with brave mortals, a three headed-dog, tear-jerking lovers and locally sourced food samplings.”

Roland Hawkins II and Meredith Cain-Nielsen encounter the unexpected during their musical picnic (photo credit-Brad Dahlgaard)

Mixed Precipitation is also hosting a Brunch Benefit at the Bedlam Theater

Saturday August 15th 11:00–1:30
Sunday August 16th 11:00–1:30

Featuring  live music by Karen Townsend, others and a champagne toast to ecological design and backyard barnyards. Leave with a few gardening tips from master gardeners!

Bedlam Theatre is located at 1501 S 6th St, Mpls

This production is directed by Scotty Reynolds and features the spirited music direction of Erik Pearson, dynamic choreography of Taja Will and the work of culinary interludes of collaborating chef Nick Schneider of Café Brenda

Suggested donation: $10 to $40

Community Garden Schedule:

Sat. August 29th 4:00 at the Birchwood Community Garden

(2544 Hwy 100 South in St. Louis Park, behind Reformation Lutheran Church)

***audio description provided at this performance

Sunday August 30th at the JD River’s Children’s Garden

(Glenwood and Washburn Ave in Theodore Wirth Park, Mpls)

Saturday September 5th on Nicollet Island

(Maple Place and Nicollet Street)

Saturday September 12th 4:00 at the Columbus Community Garden

(33rd and Columbus Ave, Minneapolis)

Sunday September 13th 4:00 at Celeste’s Dream Community Garden

(1880 Randolph Ave, outside the Sister of St. Joseph Carondelet, St. Paul)

Saturday September 26th 4:00 at the Augsburg Community Garden

(20th Avenue and 6th Street, Mpls)

Sunday September 27th 4:00 at the Midway Green Spirit Community Garden

(at the intersection of Taylor and Hamline Avenue and Pierce Butler)

Tickets:  612.619.2112

$10–$20 Suggested Donation  (no one will be turned away for lack of funds)

Even before I dialed the phone number to call Chad Revier, Minnesota State Pumpkin Champion, I repeated over and over in my head “Don’t geek out, don’t geek out, don’t geek out.”

You see, I love the pumpkins.

I started growing them about 9 years ago and it’s been one of those hobbies that borders on obsession with my specialty being growing what I considered large pumpkins,100-300 lbs, and a myriad of decorative and classic pumpkins all on a city lot. Some of you may even recall my videos A Pumpkin Opera and Running through the pumpkin patch.

So when the chance arose to interview Chad Revier, the Minnesota Pumpkin King (1,428 lbs.), well . . . . I geeked out.

This is the first interview in a three part series as I stalk Mr.Revier through the 2009 growing season.

1) How many years have you been growing pumpkins?
I have been growing for three years, this will be my second year of competitive growing.

2) What made you decide to start growing pumpkins? A few guys in the area grew giant pumpkins and I thought I would give it a try

3) How much time in a given week do you spend growing pumpkins? It varies greatly depending on the time of year. This year I expanded to 6 plants and at most spend 20-25 hours per week during peak plant growth. Things are starting to slow down now.

4) Some would say pumpkin growing becomes an addiction, what do you say about that? They say the first step is admitting you have a problem, good luck getting a grower to admit it.

5) How often do you think about pumpkins? I thought about them once about three years ago, the problem is I am still thinking.

6) How are your pumpkins doing this year compared to years prior? It is still early but my plants are bigger this year, which should lead to bigger pumpkins. A lot of bad things can happen from now until October.. All I know is there will be good days and some disappointing days.

7) Do you use any special plant foods or fertilizers? Fish emulsions, Seaweed, Humic Acid, Mycorrhizal Fungi, Compost Tea

8) What do you do with the pumpkins once they are harvested? Remove the seeds then nothing to exciting, I have displayed them at the end of the driveway, chopped them up and feed them to the cows, or just let them rot. Always looking for ideas though.

9) Do you like pumpkin soup? Never had it. Just had cucumber soup for the first time, I liked that.

10) What’s your favorite band?
Tool

–

Tool?
TOOL!
Rock on my brother, rock on.

Here are some pictures in case you’re wondering what Chad’s pumpkins look like at this stage in the game.

If you look beyond the rows of corn you’ll see the patch, that entire square consists of six vines.

Can you also see the whiteish dots in the patch? Those are the pumpkins.

6 vines

This is what they look like up close. 

Wow

All I could say when I saw this monster was “Wow”, I mean really, that’s a lot of pumpkin.

Up next: Some practical tips for amateur growers and those that want to get started growing pumpkins.

If you have any questions for Chad, hit me up on Twitter or ask away in the comments.

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When it comes to plants names can be complicated botanical Latin names (Semiarundinaria) or common names (Bamboo).   For this blog, I am hoping for something in between.

Being the daughter of Welsh parents, I grew up in the garden, picking carrots from my grandfather’s allotment in Laleston, Bridgend, Wales and eating them right out of the ground, not bothering to wash them off.  I didn’t have to worry about any pesticides or herbicides; he was organic before anyone knew what that meant.

“Become green” in Welsh is “Glasu.”  Naming this blog Glasu would be a tribute to my heritage and would be a good representation of what it will discuss, gardening, environmentalism, “green” things.

But my last name is also Quick, so something funny, or pun-ny combining Quick, and Green/Gardening does seem appropriate as well. Because although I am passionate about organic gardening, environmentalism, green topics, I do like to keep things lighthearted.

So I will open the naming to creative minds of Minneapolis. If you can combine “Quick” and Green/Gardening in a pun-erific way or perhaps, with a Welsh spin, you get to name the blog, and even better, will win one of my handmade full-size natural cotton grocery totes like this:

Submit your suggestions in the comments below and if there is something that takes root, you will not only win the tote, but also bragging rights and my thanks!

I took the day off to extend the weekend and get some much needed work done at the house. My big project for the morning was to meet with a landscape contractor and come up with a plan,estimate, and timeframe. Last night, after a hard day’s work in the yard, I hit the books and studied up so I’d be prepared for the meeting.

To begin a long story that’ll be made shorter, I was stood up.

 No call, nothing. So I called and when they called back I was told they just took on a large project and weren’t interested. “You could have called and said as much. I took the day off” to which I was basically told too bad, so sad.

Now, I’d love to flame that landscaping company as a public service, but with great power comes great responsibility or something like that. And that’s just not how I roll. The owner did eventually call me back and apologise, but jeepers. Unprofessional much? The job is a 3 – 6k project so it’s not small like all I wanted was an estimate on some mulching. (which they advertise)

Anyway, my morning shaped up to be hours of phone calls looking for a new contractor.

So far, I’ve found the award winning Axel Landscape that has done work for HDTV and will let my dogs lick their face, but I fear may be too expensive. And I’ve found Just Add Water that appears to have done some lovely plantings.

Has anyone else recently had a bad experience with a contractor?

Can you recommend a good landscaping company?

This photo uploaded on April 25, 2008 by Aaron Landry is the kind of Saturday we’re having in the Twin Cities.

Today, I know that many of you were in conference rooms all #minnpost this and #minnpost that like a *bunch of nerds, but from what I can tell the rest of the world was out and about freaking out. 

Parking lots were full, lines were super long, and it seemed everyone had to get flowers for Mothers Day Then I spent the afternoon #tilling, #planting, #**, and #carryingFurniture for @abossyFriend.

Did anyone make it to the plant sale at the Arboretum?

(*Actually, I can’t wait to hear all about it)

(#** Twitter talk:minnebar)

It’s gardening time in the land of Minneapolis Metbloggers so let’s take some poetic license and spread the seeds of information.

I spent my early afternoon shopping for garden supplies. I needed to buy a few trees, replacements for those destroyed in last fall’s big wind storm, and to browse for some new gardening ideas. 

I found an interesting annual called the daisy vine that grows 5-8′ and flowers all summer and I bought a few whitespire birch trees. Bachmans is having a tree sale that includes 15% off and free delivery for all trees, except pines.

Any other gardening deals happening we should all know about? Anyone else getting worked up to garden?